Shmax-ing is a verb

Close to 3 months ago, I (re)discovered Shmax.com, a wonderful Transformers resource for documenting one's Transformers collection. Seriously, check it out, I'll wait - www.shmax.com.

With Shmax, I no longer have to count on my (so far) trusty spreadsheet to keep a record of when I've purchased what and at what price. With Shmax, I can update my collection online and have fun doing it, unlike my spreadsheet which I just loathe to open cos its so troublesome (to open a spreadsheet on iMac).

Everyday, I update more and more of my spreadsheet's info onto Shmax, bit by bit, incrementally. But man, is this draining. I've been doing this for about 2 weeks now, on and off, and I still have approximately 10 more spreadsheet pages, at font 8, to go....duh.

At the end of today's updating, Shmax says that I have 898 Transformers and that I am "ranked" #105 on Shmax.

Certainly, that's approximate, but I really don't care to count how many Transformers I have rather than record how much I have paid for each one.

Oh, and another interesting tidbit: according to Shmax, my "most valuable figure" is C-108: Artfire which is valued (by them) at USD$3,195 for a MIB specimen. Whoa. The second most valuable figure is TF-04: Guard City which is valued (by them) at USD$1,499.99.

Ok, back to the grind...

~ HD

Predacon Rampage has been christened... Bobby!

Sometime around Chinese New Year this year, I decided to finally cave and buy the "2010 Special" Predaking giftset.

I usually try to buy something that has 'auspicious' colours such as strong reds or warm colours. The 2010 Predaking, being coloured in mostly reds, oranges and gold, suits the bill very fine.

About a week ago, I decided to open this monster. (Sorry Kuma-Nin, I know how sacrilegious that must sound to you, who wants to keep your 2010 Predaking sealed, but I have no qualms about opening MISB Transformers, heh).

A few days ago, I decided to entirely sticker Predaking up. Inevitably drawing more dissent and feelings of outrage from 'unused' collectors.

After I was done stickering, I randomly handed Rampage to E. 

"For you to transform (from robot to animal)", I said.

E transformed Rampage. 

She looked it over after she was done. Then tilted Rampage's animal head and said... "bobby".

I was like, "what?" and E said "he's a bobby".

Ok, so Rampage is christened Bobby forever more.

Another shot of "bobby"? Sure!

TFCC Over-Run (aka Runabout) debacle

I wanted to give them a chance to prove that I have been hearing over the years were nerd-rage type exaggerated discontent. I was hoping the nay-sayers would be proven wrong about TFCC (Transformers Collectors' Club; aka FunPub).

However, this latest debacle was the straw that broke the camel's back, and, after 2 days of deliberation, I decided to say something about it in an objective manner (as much as I am able).

The debacle is this: I tried to order Over-Run from the TFCC website (after their servers crashed and came back online) and couldn't do it. Tried a few times. Then 2 days ago, I received 4 boxes of Over-Runs of which 3 were fine and there was 1 empty box.

Yes, one box was completely empty. Devoid of contents. Nada. Zilch.

That's pretty slack, really.

Then the lead up to this boiled to the surface and I thought I should really record this somewhere.

Joining TFCC

In mid Jan 2012, I decided to join TFCC to obtain the exclusive Runamuck figure. This was too good a homage for me to miss.

Tried to register a number of times and just could not get confirmation. Called FunPub in the US from HK 2 times to get it sorted.

BotCon Box Set

In late Jan 2012, I tried to purchase the BotCon box set. Went through the same exercise as above. As before, transactions appeared to have gone through, but there was no email confirmation and my CC was never charged, which again meant that the transaction did not go through.

Again, I had to call the US from HK (and Singapore) on 3-4 occasions where they tried to bill me unsuccessfully on my HSBC, then AMEX, then E's HSBC card. All the transactions couldn't go through (on CCs that are perfectly fine to use and far from overdrawn). On hindsight, it was probably a grievous mistake to provide details of 3 of the family's credit cards!

Few days later, bing!, the transaction went through, I don't know how.

This above recounted here 'live' on the OZ Formers Boards.

Ordering Over-Run

Tried to order Over-Run in early Feb 2012.

First, their servers completely crashes. As reported and documented here (OTCA), here (TFW2005) and here (Seibertron).

After they are up again, I experienced more of the same as recounted above. Again, I had to call the US from HK another 2-3 times to sort out the order (which was not sorted).

In a panic, I asked a friend in Australia and another friend in the US to help me order Over-Run. They kindly agreed and I am very touched. Such was my dismally low confidence in FunPub that I needed to hedge my bets to have peace of mind that if something else goes wrong with either one's order, I might still end up with at least 1 Over-Run.

Like I said above, in the end, these came.... ?

Credit Card Fraud

So after all that, I finally secured my Runamuck, Runabout and BotCon set and all's well with the world, yes? No, not really.

In mid Feb 2012, I got a call from my bank to inform me that 2 fraudulent transactions have been made on my CC and they would like to confirm whether I have made them.

These were the transactions:

[1] "Strawberry.net" - USD$417

[2] "Merchandise" - USD$589

What in the world are those. Nope, I didn't make them.

I talked about it here. And for a more holistic account of how many other people has had their CCs hacked and defrauded after purchasing from FunPub, see here.

Bank has to cancel my CC and reissue a new one and we all know how much of a hassle that is (to eg redirect payments, renew standing instructions, put it on file with eBay, PayPal, Yahoo, etc, etc).

I subsequently found out that every-single-person that I personally know and who has ordered something from TFCC this year has had their CCs hacked or defrauded, some with items as colourful as 'Barnes and Noble purchase'.

***

All the above is almost too much excitement for me and right now, I have decided to jump on the boat with all the other collectors who will not renew their membership next year... 

... unless TFCC comes up with exclusive that are as kick-ass as this year's. I know, I'm a bitch for punishment, yeah?

Tweaked the look

I've had this blog template since 2007 and it was based on what Google now calls "classic templates", another word for 'outdated templates'. 

Over the years, I have edited the HTML of the template ever so slightly, bit by bit and incrementally and have no doubt messed up something somewhere - I'm almost completely hapless when it comes to computer programming (even simple HTML).

Today, I came up with the brilliant idea of 'fixing' these issues (some illusory) once and for all and so have resorted to using a spanking new template called 'Simple'. 

Ta-da, this is the look now.

Not very different you say? Good.

That's exactly the effect I was hoping for.

Confused?

Yeah, so am I. So, I'm going to stick to Transformer collecting and my day job and leave the computer programming to people way more intelligent than me.

~ HD

02 x Transformers Victory C-326: Galaxy Shuttle MIB

Not really much to say about these 2 that I haven't already said. More a post documenting E's 2 Galaxy Shuttles. 

The one on the left is this one here and the one on the right is bought on New Year's day this year.

Enjoy!

~ HD

Transformers Generations Deluxe Lucky Draw Prize - God Primus MISB (善神)

I sort of knew about this figure when Transformers Generations Deluxe was released in 2004, sort of.

But it never really hit me until I saw this figure in real life, in Japan in January 2008. It just hit me that the TF: Generations lucky draw God Primus figure is a very, very accurate repaint of Rodimus Prime into Primus, Lord of the Light Gods in the now vintage Marvel UK Transformers Universe. I mean check out the picture on the right, yeah, that's Primus, and the God Primus toy looks very like that.

On further research, I found out that Simon Furman, while writing that particular issue, Marvel UK Transformers #150, specifically instructed the artist to draw Primus in Rodimus Prime's likeness, further adding weight to the God Primus figure being repainted from the Rodimus Prime toy mold.

Also, the Legacy of Unicron arc during the classic Marvel UK run, was one of my favourite arcs (aside from Space Pirates and Time Wars), giving me further incentive to really go seek out this rare figure.

The God Primus lucky draw figure is limited to 100 pieces worldwide, so I didn't rate my chances of finding it very high. That plus the fact that when I was staring at it in 2008, I couldn't really afford to pay more than $500 for it, which is cheap, even back then.

Over the years, I have been on the hunt for this figure on and off and it was not until I went to Osaka in May of 2011 that I had a real shot at it. I saw the piece on my final day in Osaka. It was expensive I thought. Do I really want it at that price, I thought some more. It's a lot to pay for a toy.

But...

... it is MISB; it is one of the few, in fact the only, lucky piece that I've ever wanted; I had just the right amount of Yen leftover to pay for it; and (this one nudged me over the line), it's tag has the date of my wedding with E on it!

I later found out that the date was actually the date the store got the piece in, how delightfully poetic!

Then I bought it.

This is the only Transformers lucky draw piece that I have and from the looks of it, the only lucky draw piece I will ever get. I'm simply not interested in straight out gold chromed lucky draw pieces. That's just dumb. I don't need to create a plastic army of golden lagoon figures worth their weight in real gold.

So here it is, the front of the box.

The tag showing its a Transformers: Generations Deluxe exclusive and given out on the 20th anniversary year of the Transformers franchise.

Close up of the name and function, which roughly translates as 'god of benvolence' (function): Primus (name).

Primus' bio. I wonder what it says. Okay, I found a translation online (don't know whether accurate):

"Primus was first featured in the UK Marvel comics as the universe's god of good. In an epic battle with the evil entity Unicron, Primus was able to contain Unicron into a planet, but he also paid the price by becoming a planet himself which became Cybertron where Transformers were "born". Primus created the Transformers to become warriors that one day could fight Unicron if he awakes. 

In 2005, Hot Rod who came in contact with the Matrix containing the essence of Primus, was reformatted by his power and became Rodimus Prime. The reformat and upgrade also altered his look to resemble that of Primus, some say that perhaps Primus was reborn through Rodimus Prime."

Wow, that's quite a reverse-retcon to explain why Rodimus Prime looks like Primus!

The MISB-ness of a white box. How boring.

The other side of MISB-ness. Yawn.

Now, we're talking... seeing some gold there.

Primus is stuck in alternate mode...

Full shot of the box with 'book-cover' open and showing God Primus in vehicle mode.

Another shot.

Unfortunately, I have not got around to opening this piece, but I can promise you I inevitably will - as I will open all my MISB Transformers regardless of whether they are vintage or highly valuable or not.

I'm sad that without opening it, I cannot really show why this piece is special among the plethora of 'gold chromed' TF lucky draw pieces - not all of it is gold chrome, it has shades of other colours!

This is the shot I took back in 2008 in a Kinokuniya in Japan, which shows that other than gold chrome, there are shades of other coloured chrome.

Fortunately for me (and us), the folks at Transformers at the Moon has detailed pictures of the God Primus figure out of its package and shown in its full glory. Check out the God Primus gallery at TFTM here.

I love this shot showing God Primus' face. It's properly coloured, with blue eyes (!), not like the other high on value low on effort lucky draw figures (photo is courtesy of TFTM.com)

Cheers,

~ HD

C-108: Artfire x 03 - MISB, MIB complete and loose

Just thought I would put some pictures of these up for posterity's sake since I might no longer own all 3 of them...

Left to right: C-108: Artfire MISB, C-108: Artfire MIB, complete, C-108: Artfire loose (comes only with Nightstick, not pictured).

Shot showing contents of the MIB Artfire

MISB Artfire and MIB Artfire (right)